Mark Stein, Senior Partner

Mark is a Co-founder and Senior Partner at GRAPH. Mark has been working in the professional services sector since 1990 and has been providing strategy guidance for leading corporations and private equity clients and portfolio companies for more than 25 years.

While Mark has addressed various strategy topics throughout his career, he has dedicated himself to supporting front-end decision making and analysis of commercial prospects that are central to acquiring companies and making investments in growth opportunities. Mark invested his creative energies in developing intellectual capital to help clients effectively frame problems, and drive analyses and smart conclusions. He co-developed, along with his business partners James Tetherton and Jeff Merkle, a seminal guide to conducting Commercial Due Diligence – Diligence | Matters.

Mark has covered a broad range of industries and deeply believes in the power of the common basis of business fundamentals (e.g., identifying needs, developing value propositions that marry up with attractive segments, generating demand, and fulfilling expectations) that carry across sectors, the art of investigation and pattern recognition, and the commercial potential that can be unleashed with business model innovation derived from empathetic-rooted design thinking.

Mark has also maintained an interest in understanding the human capital constraints and greater potential that resides in management of the team, and co-authored the book “Successful Onboarding, A Strategy to Unlock Hidden Value Within Your Organization”, published by McGraw-Hill in 2010.

Mark maintains a lifetime of great appreciation for the companies and the people that veer and make the “never considered” into the “much admired.” Participating in that value creation cycle with talented team members and clients has become the foundation of Mark’s professional life.

Prior to GRAPH, Mark was a Senior Vice President at a strategy consulting firm. While there he served as Managing Director of the company’s North America business and founded and managed the firm’s Private Equity and M&A practice from 2008 through 2017.

Mark holds a BA from the George Washington University School of Business.